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Road to Copenhagen

25/03/2009

Scott Vincent

WHATEVER happens along the remainder of the road to Copenhagen, the journey after this December’s United Nations climate meeting will need to include a focus on future energy needs. The journey so far has seen a great deal of talk about the need for renewables but how much this talk has been converted into action has been called into question.

The recent International Association of Research Universities’ Climate Congress highlighted the challenges facing the transition to a renewable world in the middle of a recession. The 2,500 delegates at the congress heard how the ongoing economic crisis is already reversing financing trends for international renewable energy projects, with government funding instead being diverted to bailing out stricken banks and financial services groups that got sucked into the vortex of economic despair that is engulfing international markets.

The call from Copenhagen was for the investment, energy and climate crises to be dealt with simultaneously. The rhetoric that has emerged from the political world in the two weeks since the congress has suggested that this is part of the grand plan.

Global co-operation and investment, it has been suggested, could power 40% of global electricity demand by 2050. Research presented at the congress by Peter Lund, representing the Helsinki University of Technology’s advanced energy systems division, suggested that with global political support and financial investment, previous notions that the potential for renewables was limited to just a fraction of world energy needs was wrong. But for the energy revolution to become a reality, massive funding will be needed.

In its message to the congress, Greenpeace called for this research and development to take place at an international level, with accelerated clean technology uptake in developed countries and mitigation policies and measures in developing countries.

Political will for a move towards renewables has increased since the election of Barack Obama and this was highlighted by the economic stimulus plan his administration unveiled this week. As part of the plans for his $3trn spending budget, Obama has allocated almost $130bn to the development of renewable energy projects, solar power and hybrid cars. In a shift from his predecessor’s focus on fuelling the world with oil, Obama said the US had a choice between remaining the world’s leader for importing foreign oil or becoming the leading exporter of renewable energy. “We have known the right choice for a generation,” he said.

Obama’s big challenge will be convincing the US Congress to back his plans and re-energising the renewable sector neglected in the US under the Bush administration.

From a global perspective, sharing the research and technologies developed in the rich world with developing nations is vital if the climate challenge is to be met. As Qingchen Chao, deputy director of China’s Meteorological Administration, said, intellectual property protection means it is difficult to transfer climate-friendly technologies to developing nations. “The necessary path for the international community to meet the challenge of climate change is to open up international co-operation in scientific research and technology,” she said.

Achieving this is perhaps one of the greatest challenges. At a time when economic systems are on the brink of collapse, persuading the owners of the rights to information that they should give them up for the greater good will not be easy. But, at a time when politicians are trying to create a transition from a “me”to a “we’”society, it may be the only option.